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I’ve been saying it for years: vinyl is the way to go and Millennials are finally catching on! Best Buy announced this week that its stores will stop selling CDs (compact discs) altogether this July 1. Meanwhile vinyl sales have been steadily rising over the last few years, becoming, once again, a high-demand item for music retailers who have been struggling to compete with digital streaming services and music downloaded from the Internet. According to The Guardian, vinyl sales saw a 53% increase between 2015 and 2016, the highest sales numbers for vinyl since 1991. Although vinyls have always been kept around by independent retailers like Half Price Books and local stores like Cheapo Records and Electric Fetus here in Minneapolis, retailers like Best Buy and Target have caught up with the trend. As some begin to drop CD sales, none seem to have any plans to stop selling vinyl. Continue reading →

Writer/director Chris Rock (right) with Rosario Dawson (left) in Top Five (2014).

Last year’s hit-comedy, Top Five, proved to be a major accomplishment for writer/director/actor Chris Rock, so much so that he is now being pressured by producer Scott Rudin to get a follow up in the theaters as soon as possible. Rock revealed to The Guardian in a recent interview that he and Rudin are having meetings on the subject on a weekly basis, and that he is planning on using a majority of the Top Five cast for the new project. Some names that have already been mentioned include Leslie Jones (The League, Workaholics), Tracy Morgan (30 Rock, Cop-Out), and Jerry Seinfeld (Seinfeld, Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee), but nothing as far as casting goes is set in stone, and Top Five had a huge repertoire of stars to write a sequel for, such as Gabrielle Union (Bad Boys 2, Cadillac Records), Rosario Dawson (Clerks 2, Sin City), Kevin Hart (Think Like A Man, Get Hard), Whoopi Goldberg (Ghost, Sister-Act), and Adam Sandler (Grown-Ups, Pixels). We’ll keep an eye out for further updates.

Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli have been attached to one of the most successful spy film franchises for the last 20+ years. I’m talking, of course, about the 50-year running James Bond franchise, which first began with Broccoli’s father, Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman in 1962 with the first Bond adventure, Dr. No. Now the two spy-film writers/producers are venturing into the realm of real-life spy controversy with a new biopic about Edward Snowden, formerly of the CIA and NSA, who is now in exile in Russia for leaking classified information to the press regarding the spy agencies’ questionable tactics behind their information-collecting policies. The film will be adapted from a new book, No Place To Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State, by The Guardian writer Glenn Greenwald, who first reported on Snowden’s espionage and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. Sony Pictures is currently developing the project with the James Bond producers at the helm, but with Bond 24 and 25 already in early pre-production with director Sam Mendes, it might be a while before we see this one really get up and running.

Director Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla re-boot hit theaters this weekend, and thus far the reviews have been nothing but positive. Starring Bryan Cranston, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Elizabeth Olsen, the new film has, according to Mark Kermode of The Guardian, remained incredibly “appreciative” to the story telling of Ishiro Honda’s original 1954 Gojira/Godzilla film. This new take on the classic story definitely brings its own uniqueness to the classic tale, especially with the modern-day visual effects that are available to present-day filmmakers, but there is also a sense of loyalty to the original filmmaker’s vision for the characters and the historical implications of the story. Also currently in theaters is Seth Rogen and Zac Efron’s Neighbors, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (which has opened to mixed reviews from critics and comic-book fanatics), and Million Dollar Arm with Mad Men‘s Jon Hamm and Oscar winner Alan Arkin. Here’s the trailer for Godzilla, just in case you need anymore convincing to go see it! Enjoy!